World's most liveable city 2014 is ...

By CNN Staff

Updated 2:32 PM ET, Tue August 19, 2014

Top 10 world's most liveable cities10 photos

10. Auckland, New Zealand – Auckland's laid-back culture lands the city at number 10 on the Economic Intelligence Unit's 2014 list of the world's most liveable cities. In fact, half of the top 10 are located in the southern hemisphere.

8. Helsinki, Finland – One of the world's top design cities, Helsinki takes the eighth spot on the most liveable cities list.

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Top 10 world's most liveable cities10 photos

7. Sydney – Excellent healthcare and infrastructure helped Sydney snag the seventh spot on the EIU's 2014 list. Having some of the finest weather in the world didn't hurt either.

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Top 10 world's most liveable cities10 photos

6. Calgary, Alberta – Calgary is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. As the sixth most liveable city, it's one of three Canadian cities to make the list.

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Top 10 world's most liveable cities10 photos

5. Adelaide, Australia – Parks, beaches and vineyards are a few of the main attractions in Adelaide, the world's fifth most liveable city.

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Top 10 world's most liveable cities10 photos

4. Toronto – Toronto consistently makes the world's most liveable cities list. But though Canada's largest city is stable, its culture just can't compete with its west coast counterpart.

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Top 10 world's most liveable cities10 photos

3. Vancouver, British Columbia – Not just a pretty city surrounded by mountains and ocean, Vancouver is steeped in culture. Once ranked the world's most liveable city, it now places third.

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Top 10 world's most liveable cities10 photos

2. Vienna, Austria – With numerous palaces and sophisticated architecture, it's no surprise the musical city of Vienna is the second most liveable city in the world.

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Top 10 world's most liveable cities10 photos

1. Melbourne – Known for its great weather and coffee culture, Melbourne is the most liveable city for the fourth year running. Excellent healthcare, education and infrastructure also helped earn this Australian city top honors.

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Story highlights

No change in EIU's top 10 liveable cities since 2011

Melbourne takes first place for fourth year in a row

Damascus, Kiev among cities that declined significantly

The Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) claims its annual Liveability Survey could be used to "assign a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages," among other things.

But that needn't apply to those in Melbourne, which for the fourth year running has been declared the best city in the world to live.

The Australian culture hub was buoyed by superlative healthcare, infrastructure and education as well as a murder rate of 3.1 per 100,000 people, half the global average of 6.2.

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Melbourne's total score of 97.5, assessed on various factors such as "stability" and "culture and environment," as well as those mentioned above, was just 0.1 points above Vienna, which scored identically across all categories to Melbourne except culture and environment.

The top 10 list hasn't changed since 2011 and of the 140 cities surveyed, only 20 changed score in the last year.

"Over half of the changes taking place over the past 12 months have been driven by deteriorating scores," said the report, "with instability re-emerging as a key factor in influencing global scores.

"Events in Ukraine, in particular, have had significant knock-on effects for cities such as Kiev, Moscow and St Petersburg.

"Localized instability has also affected locations like Bangkok.

"The score of Damascus in Syria has continued to decline, although the escalation in Iraq is not reflected in our ranking because Baghdad is not included in the survey."

Tehran in Iran, Tripoli in Libya and Amman in Jordan saw their scores improve, having "enjoyed periods of relative stability following significant falls in liveability."

But over the last five years, global liveability has declined overall, "highlighting the fact that the last five years have been characterized by heightened unrest in the wake of the global economic crisis."

Kiev (Ukraine), Tripoli (Libya) and Damascus (Syria) have seen the biggest falls in liveability over the last five years, says the report.